Project scope statement

Abstract

Defining a project scope statement is an essential part of any project. It is an output of a scope planning and used to identify the main deliverables of a project along with the key milestones, the boundaries, assumptions and constraints. This statement of work documents also the responsibilities of each member of the project team and procedures for verifications and approves of completed work. Both the project team and all of the stakeholders have to agree with all of the terms suggested in the scope statement before the actual project work begins . Even though the project scope statement is supposed to head the project in the right direction the situation can change as the project progresses. The changed situation has to be assessed on all aspects of the project and necessary changes have to be proposed to the project scope statement. The scope statement needs to be adjusted if the changes are approved . A well-written scope statement is an important part to achieve a successful project and the four main aspects which a good statement should include are the project justification, the project product, the project deliverables and the project objectives. These aspects will be discussed in more details in the following article, along with general guidelines of how to write a project statement and at last, the limitations and advantaged of writing a project scope statement will be discussed .

Introduction

Project Scope Management

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Figure 1: Project scope management processes and their tasks, from the PMBOK® Guide

As outlined in the abstract, the project scope statement is an output of the scope planning, which is a part of the project scope management process. The project scope management process refers to the set of processes required to ensure that a project includes all the necessary work, and just the amount of work necessary, to successfully complete a project. It is primarily concerned with defining and controlling what is or what is not a part of the project. Therefore the project scope can be defined as the work that must be done to deliver a product with the specified features and functions, according to the PMBOK® Guide. In Figure 1 the five major processes of the project scope management can be seen and their tasks.

The Initiation Process

The first process in the project scope management is the initiation process and it is also the first process of establishing the project scope statement. The initiation process formally authorizes a new project and applies project selection methods and expert judgments to establish three main outputs. Its outputs are the project charter document, assign or identify a project manager to the project and define the constraints that are expected to limit the project team's performance regarding the scope of the project and scheduling. An overview of the inputs, tools, techniques and output of the initiation process can be seen in Figure 2.

The outputs of the initiation process is linked to the input of the scope planning and thereby is the process an essential element of the involvement of establishing the project scope statement.

The Scope Planning Process

Getting the key parties to approach a conclusion about the scope of the project is known as project scope planning. This is the second key process of the project scope management and it is an important practice for planning and delivering projects successfully. Project scope planning begins with the initial inputs of a project description, a project charter, a definition of the constraints and assumptions. The scope of the project is generally decided by the project governance, the project sponsor, the project management team, the project's customer and inputs from different stakeholders. The identification process of who the project stakeholders are is an important early step in the scope planning. Project stakeholder can consist of persons or organizations that are actively involved in the project or if their interests may be affected by the project. These stakeholders can be, for instance, sponsors, customers, suppliers and shareholders (Reference ISO21500, page 6 to 7). It is important for the project manager of a project to set proper expectations with their stakeholders at the beginning, to ensure that no misunderstandings can appear later on. These expectations can be about how the scope of the project is managed, controlled and verified and they are one of the elements in the project scope statement that needs to be well defined. When a project scope is planned some tools and techniques are applied to get a better understanding of the project. These tool and techniques include product analysis, benefit or cost analysis, alternatives identification and expert judgment. Product analysis involves in examining some of the product features and includes techniques such as product breakdown, analysis systems engineering, value engineering, value analysis, function analysis and quality function deployment. The cost and benefit analysis is a technique used to compare the total cost of the project with its benefits to make suitable decisions on what alternative investments are the right ones. The alternative identification technique is an evaluation of different choices available to achieve a particular project management objective, they are general management techniques for example brainstorming and Delphi technique. The expert judgment is a technique in which judgment is made based on a certain set of criteria and expertise that has been acquired in a certain knowledge part or product part. This expertise can be provided by any person or group with specialized knowledge, skill or education.

Practical Guidelines

Practical guidelines of how to write a project scope statement and the four main aspects of the project scope statement will be discussed in more details.

• Project justification
• Project product
• Project deliverables
• Project objectives

Scope Creep

Discussion about what scope creep is and how it is connected to the project scope statement.

Limitations

There are few main limitations of the project scope statement and they will be discussed in this section, both strength and weakness.

Bibliography

William R. Duncan (2000), pages 55 - 57: A Guide to The Project Management Body of Knowledge: This guide provides deeper insight into the topic of Project scope statement to give further input into the process of scope statement.